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Qetsiyah (Ancient Greek: Θετσιψαη, Hebrew: קעצייאַה, Arabic: كاتسيا, Syriac: ܩeܬܣiܝܐܗ; translates as "cassia"), known in modern-times as Tessa, was the most powerful witch of the Traveler subculture, as well as "one of the most powerful witches of all time".[1][2] Qetsiyah is best known for creating the first Immortality Spell, and subsequently the first immortal, as well as the only cure for it, and the supernatural purgatory known as the Other Side. Qetsiyah was engaged to another witch, Silas, with whom she was madly in love. At his request, Qetsiyah concocted an immortality elixir that she had planned to share with him as a part of their wedding ceremony. However, after Silas betrayed Qetsiyah by taking the potion with her handmaiden, Amara, and soulmate, Qetsiyah retaliated by kidnapping Amara, and using her eternal and indestructible body to bind the spell that created the Other Side. Deceived into believing that Amara was dead, Silas was later imprisoned deep within a remote cave, along with the cure to his immortality. She believed that Silas would eventually take the cure and die as a mortal, thus joining her on the Other Side; Qetsiyah would spend the next two millennia in her own purgatory as he refused.

Shortly after Silas was entombed, the Travelers killed Qetsiyah, most likely because of her role in the creation of the immortality spell. According to Qetsiyah herself, the Travelers aren't fans of immortality and were resentful for its creation due to the fact that it caused the schism in the magical community that caused the Travelers to be cursed by the witches. After her death, the Travelers took Amara's body and made sure to move it constantly so that no one would ever find it.

Centuries later, when it became clear that Silas would never take the cure and die a mortal death as Qetsiyah had hoped, one of her descendants created the Brotherhood of the Five to find Silas, force it down his throat, and kill him. However, when this failed, Qetsiyah saw the opportunity to came back from the Other Side to kill Silas herself. Though she was ultimately not the one to end Silas' life, she eventually got her wish when her alliance with the Mystic Falls Gang which led to Stefan Salvatore killing him in Death and the Maiden. Once Silas and Amara were dead, Qetsiyah declared herself having won. Having completed her centuries old vendetta, she killed herself by slitting her wrists, content with the thought that she would be able to torment Silas on the Other Side for eternity.

Contents

Early History

Qetsiyah was born some time during 1st century B.C. Over 2,000 years ago, in Ancient Greece, Qetsiyah was a beautiful young lady who was the most powerful witch in a group of very "gifted" people called the Travelers. Also a part of the Travelers was a handsome and powerful young witch named Silas with whom she fell madly in love. The two eventually became engaged to be married, and when Silas told her he wanted to be with her forever, Qetsiyah created a spell that would make them both immortal. Qetsiyah successfully made an immortality elixir, which they would consume on their wedding night. Qetsiyah created a whole garden for their wedding and prepared for Silas to join her so that they could commence their eternity together. As she waited for him at the altar, however, everything around her started to die and Qetsiyah realized that Silas was drinking the elixir from another location.

Knowing that Silas was up to no good, she tracked Silas down to a tent in the woods, where she had discovered that Silas' betrayal was even worse than what she had believed. Not only had Silas given the immortality elixir to another woman, but that woman was her handmaiden, Amara. Enraged, Qetsiyah found a way to reverse the spell, creating a cure for immortality before going to get her revenge. She waited until Silas had left before confronting Amara. She desiccated Amara, then faked her death in order to make Silas believe she was dead. Silas attempt to attack her for killing his love, however, Qetsiyah used her magic to neutralize Silas, and entombed him in a cave on a remote island. She buried him with the cure and with a choice: take the cure, become mortal and die, or rot as an immortal being for eternity. Silas chose to rot as an immortal being in darkness for eternity just to spite Qetsiyah.

Still, after entombing Silas, Qetsiyah wasn't satisfied. She knew that should Silas die a mortal death after ingesting the cure, his spirit would be reunited with Amara in peace for eternity as he had always planned. Determined to not allow that to happen, she created a supernatural purgatory, which eventually came to be known as the "Other Side," where all supernatural creatures would go when they died. She bound the Other Side to Amara, as she needed something eternal and indestructible to bind it to so that it would never fall. This ensured that, if Silas was ever freed and succeeded in his plan to die, he would never be reunited with Amara, even if the Other Side did happen to fall, because he would be unwilling to kill his beloved soulmate.

At some point, Qetsiyah was killed by the Travelers. From the Other Side, she was forced to watch as Silas refused to take the cure. To add insult to injury, when Silas and Amara became immortals, they violated the natural law that all things must die, so Nature found a balance by creating what they call "shadow-selves," or doppelgängers, who could die in their place. While on the Other Side, she was forced to watch Silas and Amara's shadow-selves find each other and fall in love over the span of over two thousand years, believing it to be the universe's way of demonstrating that their souls were forever bound. However, in reality, they were only drawn together because of a spell a Traveler named Markos cast in the 5th century.

Roughly a thousand years later, an altered version of Qetsiyah's immortality spell was used by the witch, Esther Mikaelson, to turn her husband and children into immortals, which involved the use of blood from one of the doppelgängers (a woman named Tatia) that came to exist as the result of Qetsiyah's original immortality elixir. However, though both species possessed an insatiable craving for human blood, the alterations Esther made to Qetsiyah's spell begat a supernatural being who possessed different abilities than those Silas and Amara gained upon their transformations, and they were not nearly as invulnerable to death as the true immortals. In time, this new species eventually became known as the first vampires.

A hundred years after the creation of vampires in 1001 AD, Qetsiyah's descendant, an elderly witch who was dying from ill health, created the Brotherhood of the Five hunters, with one mission: find Silas' tomb, force-feed him the cure, and kill him. However, the first five hunters were killed by Niklaus Mikaelson, one of the Original vampires whose werewolf heritage had been bound with a curse. Due to this circumstance, their mission found itself sidetracked, and the spell that bound the five hunters was forced to adapt to new hunters who neither had the benefit of the full map to the cure, nor were they aware of the exact nature of their supernatural mission.

In Into the Wild, Shane elaborates on the story behind the creation of the cure: Qetsiyah, as part of her punishment, created the cure and buried it with Silas. Qetsiyah hoped that Silas would take the cure, die and be on The Other Side with her for all eternity, but he refused. Centuries later, her descendants created the Brotherhood of the Five to find, cure and kill Silas. Later, Shane also reveals that Bonnie and the Bennett Line are descended from Qetsiyah.

In Down the Rabbit Hole, Shane reveals that the core of Silas' Headstone contains Qetsiyah's calcified blood. According to him, it is more valuable than the Hope Diamond in some witch circles. It was never a requirement for the ritual to free Silas, but merely payment to enlist the help of Massak, an island local. After Massak is killed by Katherine, the headstone is presumably in her possession. Back at the Gilbert House, where Caroline and Tyler are trying to decode the Hunter's Mark, as well as the cryptex in the Hunter's Sword, Klaus reveals that the text is written in Aramaic, which he supposes could be Qetsiyah's native tongue.

In Stand By Me, it is revealed that Qetsiyah created The Other Side for the sole purpose of trapping Silas there for all eternity if he took the cure and died.

In Because the Night, Silas himself tells Bonnie that Qetsiyah was "one of the most powerful witches of all time", a testament to her incredible power. It also suggests that Qetsiyah was either as or more powerful than Silas as a witch.

In Pictures of You, Silas reveals to Bonnie that Qetsiyah had also cast a spell to disfigure him so that no woman could love him.

In She's Come Undone, Bonnie makes a deal with Katherine. If Katherine gives over Silas' Headstone which contained Qetsiyah's blood, she will convince Qetsiyah to tell her how to make Katherine truly immortal like Silas once the veil to the Other Side is dropped.

In The Walking Dead, Bonnie reveals to Katherine that the reason she wants to drop the veil is to ask Qetsiyah how to stop Silas. After Bonnie drops the veil she attempts to summon Qetsiyah only to be stopped by Silas. Silas reveals that Qetsiyah did not disfigure him and that he made Bonnie believe she had driven him out of her mind, creating a false sense of security. He also discouraged Bonnie, telling her Qetsiyah would not come anyway as she wants him to die and be with her.

In Graduation, Vaughn reveals that he starved to death in the cave and passed on to the Other Side, but was found by Qetsiyah. She reminded him of his destiny of curing and killing Silas. So when the veil was dropped she sent him, Connor, and Alexander to complete their supernatural destiny. Silas also reveals that it was him and not Qetsiyah who created the Immortality Spell, which later is revealed to be another lie told by Silas.

In Original Sin, Qetsiyah (under the guise of Tessa) saves Stefan from burning to death in the sun (without his daylight ring) and takes him to an unknown and secluded cabin. When he wakes up, she quickly reveals her true identity as Qetsiyah. She explains that when Bonnie dropped The Veil, she took the opportunity to send her Hunters (The Five) to cure and kill Silas.

Qetsiyah makes her appearance.

However, when it became apparent that they would fail, she decided to take matters into her own hands and revived herself before Bonnie put the veil back up. She then revealed more details behind what happened between her and Silas 2,000 years ago, which led to the revelation that Silas' true love, Amara, had also taken the immortality elixir, which created the bloodline of doppelgängers that spawned the Petrovas (Tatia, Katherine, Elena), just as Silas had his own line of doppelgängers that were created after he became immortal. Qetsiyah explained that while she was on the Other Side, she has watched the universe push the doppelgängers of Silas and Amara together, which demonstrates why Stefan and Katherine as well as Stefan and Elena have been romantically involved over the years.

Qetsiyah casts an unknown spell

When talking to Damon, Qetsiyah suggested that Stefan and Elena's relationship was predestined, but it could also be inferred that the relationships between the doppelgängers didn't always work out, as evidenced by the fact that Stefan's relationships with both girls had ended as of this conversation. Shortly after this revelation, Qetsiyah used her magic to take Stefan down and bind him to Silas in order to cast a spell to suppress Silas' mental powers. However, Damon interrupts her when he finds Stefan, and tells her he wants to take him and leave. However, when Stefan learns of the plan to disable Silas, he persuades Damon to let her finish her spell, so they can finally defeat him. Once Qetsiyah is finished, she also reveals Stefan and Elena's destiny to Damon, much to his shock, and offers to let him run off with Elena, while she stays with Stefan and keeps him safe. However, Damon loves Stefan too much to do this to him and attacks her, but she easily disarms him by inflicting him with an aneurysm and leaves. Elena arrives soon after and helps them all escape. Later, Qetsiyah is seen performing another ritual in a room full of candles that involved her blood, which hints that there is much more to her agenda than we currently know.

Qetsiyah and Silas.

In Monster's Ball, Qetsiyah tries to flirt with Stefan and reveals to Silas that The Travelers had killed her 2,000 years ago. She comes to the historical ball in order to get her amulet, which she uses to locate the anchor holding the Other Side intact. Silas, pretending to be Stefan, reads her mind to get the information, thanks to Damon breaking Stefan's neck, and rendering the block on his abilities dormant. However, Stefan escapes Damon and goes to tell Qetsiyah that it is Silas, not Stefan. Upon realizing this, an enraged Qetsiyah uses her magic to force her hand into his chest, grasp his heart and desiccates him.

Qetsiyah

In Handle with Care, Qetsiyah is looking after Stefan. After some mild flirting, she reveals that Silas took the cure and that she plans on finally killing him. As she prepares to go to the location of the anchor, she finds herself unable to leave the cabin, enraging her as she was the one who taught Silas how to do the spell trapping her and Stefan. Later, while Stefan is the shower, Elena calls Stefan's phone, which Qetsiyah answers. She implies that she and Stefan slept together, luring Elena into the cabin. Once there, she uses Stefan's phone to call Damon and threatens to kill Elena if he doesn't kill Silas. Later, Damon contacts her and asks why the Travelers would want the being they despise so much to stay alive. She responds that the cure is in Silas' blood and that the Travelers aren't a fan of immortality, implying that there's an immortal they want cured. She then fill in certain details about what the anchor had to be: eternal and indestructible, leading to the reveal that the anchor is in fact Amara herself. Later, Stefan, still having some affection for Elena, attacks Qetsiyah to give her the chance to escape. Later, she shows up, noting that history is repeating itself, someone with Silas' face appearing to care for her, only for him to betray her for a person looking like Amara. In vengeance, she states that she regrets erasing Stefan's pain and painfully restores his memories and reminds him that the only thing he could hold on to during his time underwater was that Elena or Damon would come free him and they didn't, but she did.

In Death and the Maiden, Qetsiyah needs something powerful to bind the anchor transfer to, so, since there are no natural recurrences (i.e., full moons, comets, etc) to use, she decides that doppelgängers would do the trick. Damon offers up one of the dozen or so he always has on hand.

Damon takes Qetsiyah to see Amara. Qetsiyah is given the best gift of all: Amara hand delivered in mortal form. Qetsiyah comments, "well if it isn't the face that launched a thousand doppelgangers". Amara admits that she has won and begs her to kill her. Qetsiyah tells her not to worry, that when she makes Bonnie the anchor, she will. Once this happens, however, since Amara is nothing more than a non-supernatural human, she'll pass on while Silas is trapped on the Other Side and they'll spend eternity apart. Selfishly speaking for herself, it's going to be fantastic.

Qetsiyah using her magic.

With both doppelgängers, Katherine and Elena, now present alongside Amara, Qetsiyah begins her work. Using a little blood from each doppelgänger and Amara on Bonnie's grimoire, acting as a talisman, Qetsiyah begins turning Bonnie into Anchor to the Other Side, but Silas shows up in the middle and disrupts the spell. The power goes out and when everyone looks around, Qetsiyah and Amara have vanished. Silas and Qetsiyah have a showdown in the Salvatore library, where the former injures the latter. Their witch fight however is disrupted by Stefan, who calls to say that he stole Amara and will keep her alive indefinitely if Silas doesn't come find him in 10 minutes.

Katherine and Qetsiyah

With time running out, Elena finds Qetsiyah and despite being injured forces her up to finish the job. She begins the spell again, and as she does so, Bonnie and Jeremy tell each other that they love each other, and as he touches her face, he realizes he can feel her. The spell has worked and Bonnie is officially the new anchor to the Other Side. Shortly after completing the spell, she stands in from of the fire place content with her revenge - both Silas and Amara are cured and dead and separated from one another for eternity. Katherine, however, seeks her out to complete their bargin bargain, her blood in exchange for Qetsiyah's help to stop her aging. She offers that Katherine find a drugstore cream. Katherine isn't amused and wants her to begin the spell. Qetsiyah tells her that altering someone's lifespan is what started this whole mess in the first place and that she's learned her lesson. Qetsiyah refuses to help Katherine. As she turns to face her, she reveals that she's already slit her own wrists and collapses on the floor as Katherine calls out for help.

Moments later, she appears to Bonnie breaking the news that she's now the anchor. Bonnie's confused with her sudden appearance and doesn't yet realize that she's dead. Qetsiyah informs her that she's dead and that as she passes through her, she'll feel her death. Bonnie will feel every death - every supernatural being that passes over to the Other Side will pass through you and it's going to hurt. With her peace said, she grabs hold of Bonnie and vanishes, passing through her to successfully join Silas on the other side leaving Bonnie on her knees, shrieking in pain.

In Resident Evil, Qetsiyah was mentioned by Markos in which it is revealed that the Travelers started a war with the witches after Qetsiyah created Immortality on Earth. Markos goes on to say that the doppelgängers aren't drawn together by the Universe, but that he cast a spell that drew them to each other and that True Love isn't the reason of their connection, the Witches then cursed the Travelers so they would never have unity, but Markos countered it with a spell 1,500 years ago that bound the doppelgängers and he wants to use their blood. To use their blood to undo the witch's curse.

Personality

Qetsiyah

"I have trust issues, I'm controlling, paranoid and a little crazy, and that's working out just fine."

—Qetsiyah

At first, all that could be known about Qetsiyah's personality is through inferences based on Shane/Silas' version of the legend. If she was willing to help Silas cast the spell of immortality, she must have been a very loyal friend as well as an extremely powerful witch. However, her decision to imprison Silas and Amara in darkness for all eternity indicated the height of jealousy and vindictiveness in a personality as well. Furthermore, her decision to create The Other Side as a way to torment Silas and keep him from his soulmate for all eternity suggested a highly unstable or vengeful personality, since creating the Other Side resulted in the entrapment of thousands of supernatural beings in a dimension where they were being tormented for all eternity. She also had no qualms in lying to Silas about having killed Amara (to torment him and possibly drive him to take the cure and commit suicide so he'd be with his true love in death), and then later telling that same lies to his doppelgänger, Stefan. Qetsiyah also openly lied about preparing a new Daylight ring for Stefan, when in fact, she was readying a spell to link both Stefan and Silas. Her actions have elicited different reactions. Elena expressed shock after hearing what Qetsiyah did from Professor Shane while Damon went as far as to refer to her as a "crazy ass witch". Bonnie, her descendant, seemed to find her actions very cool, telling Shane "Qetsiyah sounds like a badass", however, this was said out of ignorance, as Bonnie did not know that her ancestor was not as good a person as she thought. Since her first appearance, Qetsiyah had proven to be quite unstable, and possessive. She even admitted her own issues including paranoia and vindictiveness, but all of this is blamed mostly due to the evil Silas did her.

Physical Appearance

Qetsiyah appears to be a young and extremely beautiful woman in her 20's. She had long dark, curly hair similar in color to that of her descendant Bonnie. She appears to be of Mediterranean descent. During her life in ancient times, she was fond of wearing long, flowing dresses and sandals, a habit she brought with her to her time in the 21st century. In modern times, she was almost always seen wearing long dresses in different shades of dark violet. She also, upon locating her talisman, wore it constantly around her neck.

Powers and Abilities

Qetsiyah was arguably the most powerful witch of all time. In ancient times (during her first life) she claimed, along with Silas, that they "were the two most powerful members of a 'gifted' people"; a tribe of witches known as the Travelers. Silas, a seasoned witch in his own right also described her as one of most powerful witches of all time, which pointed to her being the more powerful one of the pair. Her people practiced magic that was described as pure magic by Markos; Traditional magic. As a Traditional witch in modern times, she used Nature, such as the Full Moon, and/or her Talisman to aid her in empowering her spells.

In her previous life, she pioneered incredible and noteworthy feats including the creation of the Immortality Spell, the Cure, and the Other Side, desiccating both Immortals, Silas and Amara, and entombing the former and binding the latter to the Other Side as its Anchor.

One of the most notable instance that testified to her level of magical skill and power was in the creation of the Other Side, which she single-handedly constructed. Comparatively, the only other known spells in similarity would be the Prison World dimension spell; something that required the power of an entire coven of witches, a celestial event, and the blood from a living witch descendant of her's to enact, and also the spell that created the Ancestral Plane; though little is known about how the latter was created.

The Other Side, which covered the entire span of the earth, existed in the spirit realm, bound to the physical world. The intention for its creation was for the plane to become a supernatural limbo, to not only trap Silas' Spirit (when he died) with Qetsiyah's Spirit in the same place for all eternity but also permanently separate him from his true love, Amara for Silas' betrayal. However, after it's creation, it housed the spirits of all supernatural entities over the next two thousand years. The Other Side (a Spirit Realm) was separate from the living realm through the division of the Veil which separated both physical and spiritual realms. Unlike the Gemini's Prison World and the Ancestral witches rite of Consecration (of which both required a number of magical acts to actively transport the desired target into the desired dimension), it would automatically pull in only supernatural spirits into itself upon death, passing through the Anchor first. Another unintended loophole that arose from the creation of the Other Side was the existence of earth-bound Spirits, which by extension gave rise to Spirit Magic. Due to this, Resurrection spells were made possible, as the Other Side literally prevented the spirits of supernatural beings from crossing-over to an afterlife; unless they found peace which was extremely rare.

Notably, Qetsiyah was very skilled at Spell-craft, also known as the creation of her own spells, as due to her spells that gave rise to things that had never been created before in history or thought to be possible (I.e spirits and immortals). A testament to how complex her spells are was seen in the nature of the cure, it had the ability to not only undo all conventional forms of Immortality, but also completely turn a technically undead Vampire, reanimated with magic, into a living, breathing Human again. Her cure can be seen as an 'absolute' Resurrection, as it went beyond reverting the vampiric status to the last state they were in as Human (which is a corpse). This was shown with Sloan, when her immortality was reversed with a Spell. Additionally, those who took the cure were free from all the weaknesses Nature placed upon them when they turned and it also permanently prevents the recipient from ever becoming conventionally Immortal again, such as vampire blood having no affect to heal, and in turn to resurrect as a vampire.

Her power was described as so great that her own calcified blood was equal in power to a full moon and could be channeled by witches to draw on it for massive amounts of power. The very fact that she only had to walk through the opened Veil to the Other Side to bring herself back from the dead was a testament to her immense power, while the Travelers had to sacrifice several of their own people to overwhelm the Anchor just to bring back Markos from the supernatural limbo. Though her ease at doing so could be more due to the fact that the Anchor at the time, Amara, was both immortal and immobile (petrified), and therefore did not need to be overwhelmed; or being the creator of the Other Side, Qetsiyah had her own private "escape hatch" that she built into the spell that she could use for her own benefit.

After her self resurrection (a rare feat even among witches), she revealed numerous other occasions of where she demonstrated her impressive control over magic. Leading Bonnie to described her as "one of the strongest witches in the world".

She was also one of the few witches to excel at nature-related spells. In a flashback she described how she "created an entire garden" for her wedding ceremony, which when shown seemed to be a large space. During her relatively brief time in the present, she continued to display her impressive skills and magical knowledge, utilizing the magical properties of multiple herbs to aid in her spell to suppress Silas' mental powers.

She show great skill with mind-based spells when she quite proficiently, even from her cabin (which seemed to be far away), use Nature's balance to the first immortals; the Doppelgänger, to successfully suppress Silas' mental powers and greatly weaken him (who was feared by most) by linking Silas to his Doppelgänger; Stefan, who during the process suffered from substantial memory loss, making her the only known witch to have performed such a feat to disable an Immortal, who was thought to be untouchable, without the need to confront him personally. Later, she was able to restore Stefan's memory (something Davina could only do with the power of all three Harvest girls), with limited divination (or memory acquisition) as she was able to acquire visions of Stefan's memories as she fully, and yet forcefully, restored them.

Another testament to her power was her skills over basic powers such as Pyrokinesis. To date she is the only witch seen to conjure blue flames (which is one of the hottest type of flames and would have required more power than an average, yellow colored flame). Interestingly, she did not need any magical or otherwise accelerant to produce the flames, as seen with the majority of other witches.

Qetsiyah disables Stefan

She was also well versed with pain infliction and telekinesis, able to enact them during times of extreme duress and threatening situations (which usually is a weakness to most witches due to fear). Unlike most witches, she had an impressive force of will that allowed her to fight against a vampire like Damon (when he attempted to rip out her throat) and against an immortal like Silas.

She also showed an impressive skill with Dream Manipulation as she was able to plant dreams (of Stefan's activities) into the minds of both Elena and Katherine, which made them believe it was due to a psychic connection shared with Stefan, which they could use to locate and save him, however this was a trap to lure them to her cabin so she could complete plan to kill Silas.

Like a few other powerful witches she was able to create her own Talisman; though unique about her Talisman it was made from human bone. She used her Talisman to enhance her own magic in order to break through the traveler's cloaking spell that had kept the anchor, Amara, hidden for 2,000 years as well as desiccating Silas, the first Immortal, for a second time.

As the oldest known witch and more powerful than the other (Silas), it is interesting to note that she taught Silas a Sunlight-based Boundary Spell 2,000 years ago during their first life. Given her descendant's aptitude for this spell type, this actually points to her being very proficient in Boundary Spells, and is considered to be, at least, the first known user of Boundary and Sealing Spells. However, it is also worthy to note that given her power in modern times, or for some unknown reason, she could not break through the spell she'd taught Silas (that he'd placed upon her cabin) and had to wait the spell out (sundown). This is similar to the situation where Celeste cast the lunar-boundary spell.

The most notable feat after her resurrection was the Anchor Transference Ritual, of which she transferred the Anchor status from Amara (a Human) to Bonnie (a Spirit). It should be noted that unlike Amara who was not dead prior to being made the Anchor, Bonnie was in fact a Spirit. Due to this increased complexity of the spell, she required a massive amount to power in order to perform such a feat and found such a source in the blood of two doppelgängers as well as her own talisman as she would later clasp onto it as she performed the spell. When the spell was complete, Bonnie, who was a spirit that resided on the Other Side and was essentially immortal (or eternal) for as long as the Other Side existed, was made the Anchor. However, through her spell, or it's loophole, the Anchor was automatically made "flesh" (in a sense an unconventional form of resurrection), that allowed her to become a human 'tollbooth' that gave her a foothold and the power to interact within both the mortal and spiritual planes of existence. Bonnie's new status as the Anchor also forced her to lose her access to her magic.

Prior to her second death, Qetsiyah herself implied that she could reverse her own cure to Immortality. She states to Katherine, who was dying due to rapid aging for having the cure removed from her blood, "Altering someone's lifespan is what started this whole mess in the first place. I've learned my lesson. I'm not saving your life." Which seemed to be a testament to her power over the cure and given that the cure was the only loophole to undoing all Immortality this is rather an impressive implication, however, it could be that since she's the witch that created it, she also had the power to uncreate it as there was no known spell to reverse its effects, or perhaps it was merely a rouse in order to prevent the destruction of the Anchor.

Weaknesses

Qetsiyah had the typical weaknesses of a human/witch.

Relationships

Over 2,000 years ago, Silas and Qetsiyah were the most powerful witches in a group of very "gifted" people called The Travelers. The two eventually became engaged to be married and, telling her that he wanted to be with her forever, he used her for creating a spell which would make him and his one true love Amara the first immortals in the world. Qetsiyah successfully made the Immortality elixir, which they would consume on their wedding night. Qetsiyah created a whole garden for their wedding and prepared for Silas to join her so that they could commence their eternity together. At that moment however, everything around her started dying. Qetsiyah realized that Silas was drinking the elixir from another location. Qetsiyah realized he did intend to be immortal but not with her, when she learned that Silas given the immortality elixir to another woman but that woman was her handmaiden, Amara. Enraged, Qetsiyah found a way to reverse the spell, creating a cure for Immortality, she forced Amara to drink the cure and killed her, first slitting her throat before ripping out her heart, which made Silas get angry, she later entombed him in a cave on a deserted island. She buried him with the cure and with a choice: take the cure and die a human, or rot as an Immortal forever. Qetsiyah created the Other Side, which is a supernatural purgatory for supernatural creatures after they die, so that when or if Silas dies, he would wind up there and be with her forever instead of with his human true love.

Amara was Qetsiyah's handmaiden as a human. Unbeknownst to her, Amara was actually in a secret relationship with Silas, Qetsiyah's fiancé. On the night of her supposed wedding, as the garden around her began to die, she knew Silas had already ingested the immortality elixir with another. Qetsiyah tracked him down and discovered he has given the immortality to Amara. This began her hatred, and consequent mission to separate the two. Qetsiyah caught Amara alone in the woods one night turning her to stone and imprisoned her for 2,000 years, making her "the Anchor" to The Other Side. In the present, Qetsiyah and Amara meet again after Silas releases her. Qetsiyah taunts the former immortal, and Amara finally apologizes and pleads with Qetsiyah to kill her, to end her suffering. With Amara and Silas' death after transferring the Anchor onto Bonnie, Qetsiyah finally managed to extract her revenge on Amara by keeping her and Silas apart for eternity.

Name

Qetsiyah (קְצִיעָה) is a feminine name of Hebrew origin. The name means "cassia," which is a bark similar to cinnamon. Qetsiyah is a variant of Keziah, the name of the second daughter of Job born after his trial.[3]

Tessa is a feminine name of Greek origin. The name means "to reap", "reaper" or "to harvest". It is a variation or short form of Theresa.[4]

Trivia

Given her coven's teachings, and not to have been stated otherwise, Qetsiyah was most likely to have practiced Traditional magic to have accomplished her feats.

However, like any other witch, this does not exclude the possibility that she could have utilized other forms of magic during ancient times.

In order for the Bennett bloodline to continue, it is assumed that Qetsiyah had a child or children before the Travelers killed her or that she had siblings.

According to Melinda Hsu Taylor in Love You to Death: Season Five that Qetsiyah had a brother, as well as "that there was a whole family unit", in the writer's draft of Original Sin. Unfortunately, the scene was cut as it was longer than what they were able to shoot in their schedule. Additionally, in the draft, it was written that her brother had freaked out on her after what she'd done and killed her over Silas's headstone, which is where she'd been mourning, and that's how her blood got into his headstone.[5]

Qetsiyah's character has similarities to Inari's character in the novels.

Qetsiyah had a fascination for what has changed in the physical plane since she died. She compared the differences between an open bar then and now, was intrigued by how modern man managed to cure pork fat into bacon and comparing it to the lamb meat that was rather popular in her time, and delighted in the thought of tasting pineapple on pizza.

Qetsiyah is the first person to cross over to the Other Side through Bonnie as the new Anchor.

Qetsiyah has had a part to play in the creation of two breeds of Immortal creatures.

Her fate since the collapse of the Other Side is unknown, however, given her obsession with Silas, it's highly likely that she chose to pass on, as she had no more interest in the physical world.

In Death and the Maiden, Qetsiyah states 'I won. Amara's gone, and Silas is waiting for me on the Other Side.' This implies that her unfinished business was complete since she obtained her revenge on Silas.

They both created forms of immortality, though Dahlia's was unconventional.

They were both listed as the most powerful witches "of all time" or "in history", respectively.

They used their power to imprison the ones that they loved (Silas and Freya, respectively).

They were both scorned by the person they loved most (Silas and Esther, respectively) and hated them for it.

They were shown doing things that no other witch could do (Qetsiyah resurrecting herself with no other power source and creating a whole new dimension of suffering in the afterlife, and Dahlia teleporting and bequeathing humans a piece of her power, temporarily turning them into witches).

Qetsiyah is believed to have participated in the creation of the Brotherhood of the Five. In The Five, Alexander recounts the Five's creation of how they were bound by fire in the last breath of a dying Bennett witch in the 12th Century. The witch performed this spell to create the Brotherhood of the Five for a single purpose: to oppose Silas and destroy vampires. It is presumed that Qetsiyah communicated with her from the Other Side, as it has been shown that most Bennett Witches have communed with the Spirits, guiding her to their creation. This is based on the claim that she made to Stefan ("My hunters have failed in their task to kill Silas.") in Original Sin.